LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap Copyright If o 

Shelf....'. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






WHY INFANTS 
ARE BAPTIZED 



AN ESSAY BY 

ERSKINE N. WHITE 



Philadelphia: 

THE WESTMINSTER PRESS 

1900 






7 1 440 



Library of Conpres-^ 

^wo Copies Received 
NOV & 1900 

Copyright entry 

SECOND COPY. 

Delivered to 

L ORDER DIVISION, 
NOV 19 I9UU 



3^1 



Copyright, 1900, by the Trustees of 

The Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath- 
School Work. 






To 

The Abiding Memory 

of 

One whose Faith in the Covenant 

herein portrayed 

She lived to see abundantly rewarded. 



. 



PREFATORY NOTE 



PHE substance of the following essay 
A was published a number of years ago 
in the Princeton Review. 

It has been revised and enlarged and is 
now reprinted in the hope that it may 
prove of service to some who, while valu- 
ing on account of ancestral tradition and 
tender associations the privilege of pre- 
senting their infant children for baptism, 
are yet troubled with doubts as to the 
meaning of the sacrament in such cases 
and its value to the recipient. 

It is hoped that it will be sufficiently 
evident even to those who dissent from 
the views expressed that they are not ad- 
vocated in any controversial spirit. 

E. N. W. 

New York, September i, 1900. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction ..... i 
I. One Baptism ... 6 

II. The Teaching of the Scrip- 
tures . . . .TO 

III. Scripture References' . 52 

IV. Position in the Church . 55 
V. Objections . . 58 

VI. Importance of Right Views 70 
VII. Responsibilities and Privi- 
leges . . . . 76 
VIII. Encouragements . . .82 
Appendix 

Note A. History . .88 

Note E. Definitions of Regen- 
eration .... 90 
Note C. Elect Infants . . 92 
Note D. The Mode of Baptism 94 
Note E. Meaning of Anglican 

Baptismal Office . . 98 



v. 




WHY INFANTS ARE BAPTIZED 



Introduction 




WO sacraments only, baptism 
and the Lord's supper, are ac- 
cepted by Protestant Christen- 
dom as of divine appointment. 
In regard to one of these, the Lord's 
supper, it is universally admitted that a 
certain degree of knowledge and therefore 
of conscious preparation upon the part of 
the recipient are necessary. Not unnat- 
urally therefore a question arises, and to 
some minds assumes grave importance, 
whether the same is not true in regard to 
the other sacrament, namely, that of 
baptism. It is true that a marked dis- 
tinction is immediately obvious: in the 
one sacrament the disciple is the active 
participant; in the other he is the passive 
(9) 



io Why Infants Are Baptized 

recipient. Yet inasmuch as even in the 
latter case there may be either a voluntary 
or an involuntary recipiency the question 
still remains. 

The experience of all pastors will doubt- 
less agree that they find in their congrega- 
tions parents who are earnest and consci- 
entious in their desire to fulfill their duty 
to the children whom God has committed 
to their care and who recognize the fact 
that the standards of the Church instruct 
them to present their infant children for 
the sacrament of baptism, but who con- 
fess that doubts disturb their minds as to 
the meaning and efficacy of the sacrament 
when administered to newborn babes. 
They are still further disquieted by the 
knowledge that many excellent Christians 
composing, at least in this country, a large 
and influential branch of the Church uni- 
versal, unhesitatingly deny the propriety 
of such administration and assert that the 
baptism of infants is a meaningless form. 
How shall such questions be met ? 



Why Infants Are Baptized n 

It must be frankly admitted that many 
who accept the practice assign reasons for 
it which tend rather to increase than allay 
the doubts of inquirers. There can be 
little question that whether from this 
cause or from the failure of adequate 
direct instruction there is a wide diversity 
of opinion as to the significance of the 
sacrament when administered to infants 
and consequently as to the relation of 
baptized children to the Church. That 
this should tend to neglect in practice is 
not strange, and a comparison of the 
number of such baptisms with the number 
of communicants, at least as reported in 
the statistics of the Presbyterian Church, 
seems to indicate that neglect is far from 
uncommon. 

The popular misapprehension upon this 
subject is also manifest in the frequency 
with which the first approach of baptized 
children to the communion table is de- 
scribed as their "joining the Church" or 
"uniting with the Church;" phrases 



12 Why Infants Are Baptized 

which by their common use, even by 
teachers and pastors, have doubtless had 
much to do with obscuring the plain 
teaching of the Scriptures and the stand- 
ards of the Church. In short, so long as 
the significance of the baptism of infants 
is in dispute among those who advocate it 
and the position of baptized children is 
looked upon as anomalous and undeter- 
mined, so long our church members and 
especially the more intelligent and 
thoughtful among them will be tempted 
to look upon the sacrament lightly and to 
be careless in regard to its administration 
to their children. 

Nevertheless, were a growing diver- 
gence of theories the only result of such 
misconception it would be a matter of 
comparatively small importance and one 
which the present writer would feel far 
less interest in discussing. The mere 
question of the prevalence or neglect of 
the practice as an ecclesiastical rite sinks 
into insignificance unless the sacrament is 



Why Infants Are Baptized ij 

seen to be symbolical of most profound 
truths and of precious spiritual privileges. 
But as a fact the whole question of the 
manner in which our children shall be in- 
structed and trained is determined by 
the views held as to the significance of 
their baptism and their consequent rela- 
tion to the Church. It is because of its 
important bearing upon the teaching of 
our pulpits and the Christian nurture of 
immortal souls that this subject should at- 
tract earnest and prayerful consideration. 
It is with such convictions that the 
present writer hopes that a simple restate- 
ment of the grounds upon which, in accord- 
ance with the teaching of the Scriptures, 
the sacrament of baptism is to be admin- 
istered to infants, may prove timely and 
of interest to those to whom God has com- 
mitted the care and nurture of the chil- 
dren of the Church. 



I 




One Baptism 
T is not proposed at the present 
time to enumerate the various 
conflicting views which in the 
supposed interests of spiritual 
life have been advanced in our Protestant 
non-ritualistic churches. 

It is sufficient to say that both the 
history and the experience of the Church 
abundantly prove that any theory that as- 
signs to the sacrament of baptism in the 
case of infants a different significance 
from that in the case of adults, or that 
admits that baptized children are not in 
the full sense of the words ' ' members of 
the Church " will be found unsatisfactory 
and, if consistently acted upon, will inevit- 
ably lead to indifference to the privilege 
and irrepressible doubt as to the propriety 
of baptizing infants at all. 
Us) 



Why Infants Are Baptized 16 

The reason is obvious. Such a view, 
making baptism in the case of the infant 
to mean something other and different 
from baptism in the case of the adult, and 
assigning the baptized adult to one posi- 
tion and the baptized child to another, 
necessarily assumes either that such dis- 
tinction, which virtually establishes in the 
Church two baptisms, is enjoined in the 
Scriptures, or that we have no divinely 
expressed warrant for administering the 
sacrament to infants, and must depend 
upon analogy, tradition, precedent, or an 
apostolic example, which is in dispute, to 
justify our practice. 

As the first position is obviously unten- 
able, the second is to a great extent prac- 
tically accepted. Indeed, it is frequently 
admitted, with prompt ingenuousness, 
that the Bible contains no direct command 
to baptize infants. After this concession, 
however ingeniously such baptism may be 
defended upon the grounds of " time-hon- 
ored custom," the "authority of the 



Why I) if ants Are Baptized lj 

Church," the "edification of parents, ".or 
the " beauty of a consecratory rite," the 
way, among Protestants, to carelessness 
and neglect is very short and easy. 

In contradistinction to this we find two 
classes of believers whose practice invari- 
ably accords with their doctrine; upon 
the one side those who hold that infants 
are regenerated, ex opere operato, by bap- 
tism; upon the other, those who believe 
that baptism concerns only conscious be- 
lievers. In each of these cases the prac- 
tice is the necessary logical result of a 
definite and pronounced theory, and the 
theories, though antipodal, agree in the 
position from which they start, namely, 
that the sacrament of baptism as found in 
the Scriptures is single, that its signifi- 
cance is in all cases the same, and that 
the inspired statements concerning quali- 
fications in the recipient apply alike to all 
candidates. 

Id the conviction that, however wrong 
the conclusions, this fundamental position 



18 Why Infants Are Baptized 

is sound and essential to any tenable view 
of the significance of this sacrament, it 
will be attempted, in consistency with it, 
to show, upon the one hand, that the 
Scripture precepts as distinctly command 
the baptism of infants as that of adults; 
and, upon the other, that this position, 
involving, as it does, the church member- 
ship of such infants, can be held without 
embracing the ritualistic views of the 
Romish or the High Anglican party. 

In taking this position no novel ideas 
are advanced. It is believed to be the 
only position that is consistent with the 
history of our Church* and with its stan- 
dards. 

*The Presbyterian Church, of which the writer is a 
member. 



II 



The Teaching of the Scriptures 




T would be aside from the pres- 
ent purpose and is unnecessary 
to the argument to review the 
history of the controversy in 
regard to the original practice of the 
Church.* Acknowledging the Scriptures 
as the only rule of faith and obedi- 
ence they must be made the sole standard 
of appeal in regard to the purport of this 
sacrament and the character of those to 
whom it is to be administered. 

Admitting, then, that the sacrament of 
baptism in the Christian Church is a posi- 
tive ordinance, and that as such we have 
no right to tamper with its significance, 
we turn to the great commission : — 

1 ' Go ye therefore, and teach (fia&Tjreu- 



* See Appendix, Note A. 



('9) 



20 Why Infants Are Baptized 

(rare, disciple) all nations, baptizing them 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you." Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. 

The command fialhjTeuffaTe, "make dis- 
ciples of " is explained by the latter clause, 
"baptizing them," etc. The verb signi- 
fies the end, the participle the means. In 
regard to this scholars are virtually 
agreed* Nothing is said of qualifications 
either of character or of age. These are 
to be determined by other expressions of 
Scripture. As "all nations" necessarily 
include many who are not to become dis- 
ciples, so, of course, they include infants, 
and the question whether infants are to be 
"discipled" must be decided upon the 

* The verb, /ladqTeveiv, signifies to make disciples ; it 
includes baptism and teaching. — Bengel. 

The juad-qreveiv consists of two parts — the initiatory, 
admissory rite, and the subsequent teaching. — Alford. 

The two participles, (3a~ri.^ovreg and diddanovTec;, are 
precisely what constitute the /j,a$7?Teveiv. — Olshausen. 

" Disciple all the nations, immersing them," etc. — Version 
of Bib. Union. 



Why Infants Are Baptized 21 

same grounds as the question in the case 
of adults. 

Obviously the answer in both instances 
depends upon the conditions that the 
Scriptures elsewhere make prerequisite to 
the reception of the sacrament of bap- 
tism and the possibility of such conditions 
being fulfilled in infants. 

Two questions, then, cover the whole 
ground of our inquiry : — 

What conditions in the recipient are pre- 
requisite to baptism ? 

Are these conditions in any case fulfilled 
in infants ? 

I. What conditions in the recipient 

ARE PREREQUISITE TO BAPTISM ? 

These conditions depend upon the sig- 
nificance of the sacrament. 

What, then, is its significance ? 

1. Baptism is the official initiatory rite 
of the visible Church. 

This is its significance as an external, 
formal ceremony, and as such it is to be 



22 Why Infants Are Baptized 

distinguished from certain other outward 
acts that may or may not be coincident in 
point of time. 

Thus baptism is not necessarily that 
public confession of Christ before men 
which our Lord so pointedly commands. 
Of course, it may, and often does, involve 
a public confession, just as in many cases 
does the sacrament of the Lord's supper, 
but this public confession does not belong 
to the essence of either sacrament. The 
solemn words : ' 'Whosoever therefore shall 
confess me before men, him will I confess 
also before my Father which is in heaven. 
But whosoever shall deny me before men, 
him will I also deny before my Father which 
is in heaven, " cannot refer to baptism, be- 
cause at the time they were spoken the com- 
mission to baptize had not been given, and 
because the confession upon earth is par- 
allel to the confession in heaven. In not 
one of the eight or ten passages in the 
Scriptures descriptive of baptism is there 
any reference to such public confession. 



Why Infants Are Baptized 23 

So, too, the distinction between the 
11 initiatory rite" and the "door" of the 
Church is to be observed. Entrance may 
be, indeed, coincident with baptism, but 
it is not necessarily so. The Church, as 
we shall see, antedates the present dis- 
pensation, and the first Jewish converts 
were already within its fold. The corre- 
sponding sacrament under the former dis- 
pensation was administered to those who 
were already of the number of the chosen 
people. The men at Ephesus whom Paul 
baptized are distinctly called " certain dis- 
ciples. " 

The door of the Church stands always 
open to those who would join themselves 
to God's people. He who has openly de- 
clared himself upon the Lord's side has, 
in reality, entered the visible kingdom of 
God, even though he does not, upon the 
instant, receive the formal initiatory sac- 
rament. To insist, as the Roman Catho- 
lic Church does, that only by baptism can 
the Church be entered, requires logically, 



24- Why Infants Are Baptized 

by a consistent interpretation of Scripture, 
the further assertion, which she also does 
not hesitate to make, that only by this 
sacrament can there be regeneration. The 
figure used by the late Rev. F. W. Rob- 
ertson, of Brighton, in reference to re- 
generation, is equally applicable to mem- 
bership. He says: " * In baptism .... 
I was made a child of God.' Yes, corona- 
tion makes a sovereign; but, paradoxical 
as it may seem, it can only make one a sove- 
reign who is a sovereign already. ' Simi- 
larly with baptism. Baptism makes a 
child of God in the sense in which corona- 
tion makes a king. " * 

But though baptism does not necessarily 
and always first introduce the recipient 
into the visible Church, i. e., "among 
those who profess the true religion and 
their children," it is, as the official initia- 
tory rite, the " sign and seal" of his mem- 
bership. 

This is sufficiently shown by the form 

* Sermons. Second series : Sermon IV. 



Why Infants Are Baptized 25 

of the commission : ' ' Go 3-e therefore, 
and disciple all nations, baptizing them 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost." We have already 
spoken of the explanatory nature of the 
second clause. Thus discipleship was to 
be sealed. It is also approved by the appa- 
rently universal practice of the apostles 
and evangelists of baptizing " straight- 
way" all who became disciples. 

2. Baptism symbolizes and thus pre- 
supposes that radical change in the soul 
which we commonly call "regeneration. " * 

" Except a man be born of water and of 
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king- 
dom of God. " John iii. 5.f The symbolism 

* " By a consent almost universal the word regeneration 
is now used to designate not the whole work of sanctifica- 
tion, nor the first stages of that work comprehended in 
conversion, much less justification or any mere external 
change of state, but the instantaneous change from spiritual 
death to spiritual life." — Hodge s TheoL, Vol. iii, p. 5. 
See Appendix, Note B. 

f It has been disputed whether there is any reference 
in this passage to baptism. Calvin says: " They are in 
error in imagining that there is any mention of baptism in 
this passage, merely because the word water is used. Nico- 



26 Why Infants Are Baptised 

is sometimes of cleansing, sometimes of 
A.irlA c.z.L resurre ;::::: 

Aie :.._-: :::~.:.;i: ;::-^:tr ire — 

" Repent, and be baptized every one of 
yon in the name of Jesus Christ for the 
remission of sins." Acts ii. 38. 

• -Arise. c.-i 
away thy sins, calling on the name of the 
Lord." Actsxxii. 16. 

" Know ye not, that so many of us as 
—ere zz.z-.jiti A:: Asus 
rAei A: : As AiA " "LAe: . rt 

zzz.-z. -•::'.-. Irr. : ; 
A=: like i.s Airs: —3.5 rAs-ei v.; :::: 
ie-ii z~ Ae rl:r ::' Ae 7:.Aer. ever s: 
~e A,: sr:Ai ~AA A recess A life." 
A:n. A. 3. _ 



i • t : 1 .1 i ±e 



frf I = :~z It 
*£/«/.. IV.. xi 



Why Infants Are Baptized 2? 

" For as many of you as have been bap- 
tized into Christ have put on Christ." 
Gal. iii : - 

" Buried with him in baptism, wherein 
ye are risen with him through the 
faith of the operation of God, who hath 
raised him from the dead." Col. ii. 12. 

1 ' If ye then be risen with Christ, seek 

those things which are above." Col. iii. 1. 

recording to his mercy he saved 

by the washing of regeneration, 

and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Tit. 

iii. 5. 

In regard to the meaning of ' ' believ- 
ing," once coupled in a general statement 
with baptism, namely, " He that beliereth 
and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 
xvi. 16), it is to be said that it must be inter- 
preted in the light of the foregoing pas- 
sages. It must refer, not exclusively to a 
conscious conviction of the intellect, but 
alsc to a state of the soul, to what was 
formerly termed the " spiritual habit. " If 
it involves necessarily a conscious convic- 



28 Why Infants Are Baptized 

tion of the mind, no infant dying before 
years of understanding can be saved, 
for it is added, "He that believeth not 
shall be damned." 

There is no escape from this conclusion, 
excepting in the singular and startling po- 
sition of one prominent opponent of the 
baptism of infants: "The gospel has 
nothing to do with infants. ' ' 

The passages that have been cited, and 
indeed all texts that speak of the signifi- 
cance of baptism, seem to agree that an 
inward change is symbolized. It is not to 
be assumed that such inward change has, 
as a matter of fact, invariably and in every 
case taken place. Under the most search- 
ing examination of adults there would be 
doubtless received some who were hypo- 
crites or self-deceived ; but none the less 
the change is symbolized and presumed. 
This is generally admitted, even though 
there is a difference of opinion as to the 
nature of the change, or an intimation 
that there may be another use and signifi- 



Why Infants Are Baptized 29 

cance of baptism not specified in the 
Scriptures. 

So distinct indeed are these utterances 
of the word of God that many Christians, 
mistaking, as we contend, the very com- 
mon figure by which the properties and 
effects of the thing signified are attributed 
to the sign, have assumed that baptism, 
ex opere operato, imparts regeneration. It 
has been already intimated that the inter- 
pretation which makes baptism necessarily 
the door instead of the sign of entrance 
must logically make it also the means in- 
stead of the sign of regeneration. 

3. Baptism, as a sacrament, is an instru- 
ment and medium through which the Holy 
Ghost conveys to those by whom it is wor- 
thily received spiritual grace. 

This is clearly taught in all the symbols 
of the Church, Reformed as well as 
Roman, although there is not always a dis- 
tinction made between the act of the Holy 
Ghost in transforming the soul, which act 
may or may not be synchronous with bap- 



jo Why Infants Are Baptized 

tism, and the further spiritual gift of en- 
lightenment and enlargement which is 
conveyed to those who rightly receive the 
sacrament. This latter is parallel to the 
spiritual grace received by those who wor- 
thily partake of the Lord's supper. " Thus 
Luther observes that the grace of bap- 
tism is not a thing transient and confined 
to the moment, but which, if cultivated, 
remains and renovates through the whole 
course of life. ' ' * 

That baptism is such an instrument and 
medium of the Holy Ghost is to be inferred 
from the frequent connection in the Scrip- 
tures of the ideas of baptism with water 
and with the Spirit. 

The words of John the Baptist, "I in- 
deed baptize you with water unto repent- 
ance: but he that cometh after me is 
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not 
worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with 
the Holy Ghost, and with fire " (Matt. iii. 
1 1), seem to refer to the distinction between 

* Expos. Thirty-nine Art., Browne, p. 644. 



Why Infants Are Baptized ji 

a "baptism unto repentance " and the sac- 
rament of Christian baptism which was to 
be a sign and a seal of the baptism of the 
Spirit. 

Repentance {jierdvoia) depends upon the 
regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit; 
yet Peter, upon the day of Pentecost, said, 
" Repent, and be baptized every one of you 
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remis- 
sion of sins, and ye shall receive the gift 
of the Holy Ghost" Acts ii. 38. 

Again, after the preaching of Paul at 
Ephesus, certain disciples who had long 
believed ' ' were baptized in the name of 
the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid 
his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost 
came on them." Acts xix. 5, 6. 

1 ' For by one Spirit are we all baptized 
into one body." 1 Cor. xii. 13. 

That grace of some sort is conveyed to 
those who worthily receive baptism is de- 
nied only by those who hold the very 
lowest view of the sacraments. 

Baptism, therefore, is not only a sign 



32 Why Infants Are Baptized 

and seal, "it is also a means of grace, be- 
cause in it the blessings which it signifies 
are conveyed, and the promises of which 
it is the seal are assured or fulfilled to 
those who are baptized, provided they be- 
lieve. Unless the recipient of this sacra- 
ment be insincere, baptism is an act of 
faith ; it is an act in which and by which 
he receives and appropriates the offered 
benefits of the redemption of Christ." * 

If our view of the significance of bap- 
tism is correct; if it is the official initia- 
tory rite of the visible Church, the symbol 
of regeneration and a sacramental medium 
of spiritual grace, then it follows that the 
conditions in the recipient prerequisite to 
its administration are : — 

i. Membership in the visible Church. 

2. Presumptive regeneration. 

3. Capability of receiving spiritual grace. 



* Hodge s Theology, Vol. iii, p. 589. 



Why Infants Are Baptized JJ 

II. DO INFANTS IN ANY CASE FULFILL 
THESE CONDITIONS ? 

Upon the answer to this question the 
controversy in regard to the baptism of in- 
fants turns. If infants do not fulfill these 
conditions, then the special commands in 
regard to baptism have no relation to them. 
If in any case they do fulfill the conditions, 
then in such case they are numbered 
among those whom we are directly com- 
manded to baptize. As a matter of fact, 
those Christians who reject infant baptism 
(technically so called) baptize children as 
soon as they give satisfactory evidence 
that they have fulfilled the necessary con- 
ditions — thus making fitness, not age, the 
test. 

That children of believing church mem- 
bers may from earliest infancy fulfill these 
conditions is, in our view, the ground upon 
which it is to be argued that they are en- 
titled to receive the sacrament of baptism. 
First Condition — Membership in the visi- 
ble Church. 

3 



34 Why Infants Are Bapt: 

The children of church members have 
a birthright in the visible Church. 

This is to be inferred : — 

i. From the divine institution of the 
family. 

{a) The family, not the individual, is 
the unit of the race. 

The homo — man — is not male or female, 
but represents the male and female in 
their mutual interdependence — the germ 
of the family. ' ' God created man in his 
own image, in the image of God created 
he him; male and female created he them." 
Gen. i. 27. Children at birth and in in- 
fancy are wholly dependent upon their 
parents. Literal independence of the in- 
dividual is unknown and impossible. 

(6) Justly or unjustly, in all ordinary 
cases, as a matter of fact, the children's 
position at birth is determined by that of 
the parents. It is necessarily so in the 
family and in the State, which with the 
Church make up the three organizations 
among men that are of divine appoint- 



Why Infants Are Baptized JJ 

ment. It is so, largely in physical and 
mental gifts, in moral aptitudes, in social 
position, in political status. 

(c) In the most momentous transaction 
— excepting the atonement — that the world 
has ever seen, this unity of the family was 
divinely announced. " By one man sin 
entered into the world, and death by sin; 
and so death passed upon all men, for that 
(i^' f) all have sinned." Rom. v. 12. 

It is natural law — we may say " common 
law" — in God's arrangement of human 
society, that antecedent to their own ac- 
countability, the position of children is 
largely determined by that of their parents, 
and if no statute law is found making an 
exception, the common law holds good in 
reference to the Church. 

2. The birthright in the visible Church 
of such children is to be inferred from 
their position under former dispensations. 

(a) The Church of God is one in all ages. 

(1) From its constitution. God and man 
are always the parties concerned. Faith is 



j6 Why Infants Are Baptized 

always the condition of salvation. The 
sacraments are of like signification. The 
one Son of God, the one sacrifice for sin, 
the one glorious destiny, are always the 
central facts. 

(2) Historically. Prophecy declares 
that the Church shall be enlarged, not 
changed — e.g., "Sing-, O heavens; and 
be joyful, O earth; and break forth into 
singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath 
comforted his people, and will have mercy 

upon his afflicted Lift up thine 

eyes round about, and behold: all these 
gather themselves together, and come to 
thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou 
shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as 
with an ornament, and bind them on thee, 

as a bride doeth The children 

which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost 
the other, shall say again in thine ears, 
The place is too strait for me : give place to 

me that I may dwell Behold, I will 

lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set 
up my standard to the people: and they 



Why hifants Are Baptized 37 

shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy 
daughters shall be carried upon their 
shoulders." Isaiah xlix. 13-22. So also 
the whole of the chapter (Isaiah lx.) com- 
mencing ' ' Arise, shine ; for thy light is 
come," and many other passages that 
might be cited. 

Christ was crucified before the old dis- 
pensation had passed away. 

(3) Scripturally. " Christ hath redeemed 
us from the curse of the law, .... that 
the blessing- of Abraham might come on 
the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that 
we might receive the promise of the Spirit 
through faith." Gal. iii. 13, 14. "And 
this I say, that the covenant that was con- 
firmed before of God in Christ, the law, 
which was four hundred and thirty years 
after, cannot disannul, that it should make 
the promise of none effect." Gal. iii. 17. 
That is, the Jewish polity may come and 
go, but cannot affect the covenant. ' ' So 
then they which be of faith are blessed 
with faithful Abraham. " Gal. iii. 9. 



jS Why Infants Are Baptized 

Paul elsewhere teaches distinctly that 
the Church, instead of being abrogated, 
remains the same through all change, the 
Jewish branches being cut off, the Gentile 
branches being grafted in ; and that here- 
after the Jews are to be restored, not to a 
new body, but to their own " olive-tree." 
Compare Rom. xi. 18-24; Eph. ii. 11-22. 
To the same effect is the whole tenor of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews. 

{b) Children are distinctly declared to 
be members, with their parents, of the 
Church under former dispensations. 

So far as the Church was organized and 
developed in the earliest ages, we find 
this apparently true, and when, in the 
time of Abraham, it was specifically set 
apart from the world, we find the principle 
established by direct statute : "I will 
establish my covenant between me and 
thee and thy seed after thee in their 
generations for an everlasting covena?it, 
to be a God unto tliee, and to thy seed 
after thee." Gen. xvii. 7. The seal of 



Why Infants Are Baptised 

that covenant was circumcision, and by 
the administration of this sacrament the 
children were publicly proclaimed mem- 
: ~ :: : :e ':.: wit'r.z'.i. ::' : = ::::. 

announced when the children of Israel, 
under the Mosaic law, were still more 
ierZnirelv sera, riled :r:m :r_e res: : :r_e 
world. The law of circumcision was more 
than a mere civil regulation. The act 
was a religious transaction belonging to 
the Church, of which the terms of mem- 
bership (viz., faith) were the same as 
under the later dispensation. ■ * He re- 
ceived the sign of circumcision, a seal of 
the righteousness of the faith which he 
had yet being uncircumcised." Rom. iv. 
n. "For the promise .... was not to 
Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, 
but through the righteousness of faith." 

Tie :ues:i:r_ *- = = ':een sonerlnes 
niser. --'.-. r :"-•;= ^:r=~e::: sli:uld :.:.- 
been so ordered as to be administered 



4° Why Infants Are Baptized 

only to males. The reason seems to be 
that in a day when the leadership of the 
family was so distinctly emphasized, it 
was enough that the man, as the repre- 
sentative of his family, should receive the 
seal of the covenant. Male infants were 
prospective representatives of families. 
That, under the present dispensation, the 
sacrament should be administered to both 
sexes is simply in accordance with the 
change that all admit has taken place 
under the gospel in the social position of 
women. The argument does not here 
turn upon the fact that infants were cir- 
cumcised, but upon the anterior fact, proved 
by their circumcision, that they had a 
birthright in the Church. This, of course, 
was as true of female as of male children. 
If then the Church is identical in all 
ages and under all dispensations, and if in 
former days the children of believing par- 
ents had a birthright in the Church, the 
argument is a fortiori that such children 
still enjoy such birthright. Presump- 



Why Infants Are Baptized 41 

tively the Church under the gospel would 
not be narrower than under the law. The 
only ground upon which this conclusion 
can be obviated is that they are deprived 
by express statute of their ancient privi- 
leges. 

3. That the children of church members 
have a birthright in the visible Church is 
implied in direct Scripture statements. 

It is self-evident that such statements 
are capable of being differently inter- 
preted or misunderstood, or there would 
be no conflict of opinion among honest, 
intelligent students. We cite : — 

(a) All of the very numerous statements 
that children are blessed for their parents' 
sake, e. g., the second commandment: 
"showing mercy unto thousands (i. e., 
generations) of them that serve me." 

1 ' O that there were such a heart in 
them, that they would fear me, and keep 
all my commandments always, that it 
might be well with them, and with their 
children forever!" Deut. v. 29. 



4.2 Why Infants Are Baptized 

" For they are the seed of the blessed 
of the Lord, and their offspriiig with 
them." Isaiah lxv. 23. 

"They shall remember me in far coun- 
tries; and they shall live with their chil- 
dren, and turn again. " Zech. x. 9. 

"And they shall dwell therein, even 
they, and their children, and their chil- 
dren's children forever: and my servant 
David shall be their prince forever." 
Ezek. xxxvii. 25. 

"For the promise is unto you, and to 
your children." Acts ii. 39. 

(#) Such suggestive statements as that 
Jesus blessed little children {ppl<pr t new 
born babes), (Matt. xix. 14; Luke xviii. 15, 
16) ; that he said, " Of such is the kingdom 
of heaven," i. e., the visible Church under 
the new dispensation; that he directed 
Peter to feed the " lambs" as well as the 
sheep. John xxi. 15-17. 

(V) The distinct announcement: "For 
the unbelieving husband is sanctified by 
the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sane- 



Why Infants Are Baptized 43 

tified by the husband: else were your chil- 
dren unclean ; but now are they holy (Syid). 
1 Cor. vii. 14. 

"Ayto$ and ay tot are the common designa- 
tion of Christians, referred to as Church 
members. Acts ix. 13, 32 ; xxvi. 10 ; 
Rom. i. 7; 1 Cor. i. 2, etc. In the text 
under consideration the same term is ap- 
plied to the children. 

It has been objected with apparent force 
that as the ' ' unbelieving wife " or ' * hus- 
band ' ' is said to be sanctified {jiyiaaxai) 
that the same reasoning would involve the 
church-membership of the adult unbeliever. 
It is to be remembered, however, that the 
force of the passage for our present pur- 
pose lies in the fact that the reference to 
the children is only incidental. The 
apostle is not discussing the position of 
children nor arguing that they are ay id. 
He assumes it as a fact universally ad- 
mitted, and from it argues that the unbe- 
lieving wife or husband must be, in this 
regard, considered as standing in the same 



44- Why Infants Are Baptized 

relation to the believing partner as if 
sanctified. Their union is as truly in the 
Church as if both parties were members. 
"There is no need," he says in effect, 
"to put away the unbelieving- wife, for 
she must be in some sense sanctified 
by her marriage relation, inasmuch as it 
is an admitted fact that the children are 
ayid, holy — i. e. , church members. ' ' 

The passage seems, therefore, to be 
perfectly clear in regard to the position of 
the children, and doubtful only as to what 
is implied in regard to the unbelieving 
wife or husband. 

Thus, from the divine appointment of 
the family relation, from the position of 
children under former dispensations, and 
from the distinct Scripture statements, we 
conclude that the children of church mem- 
bers fulfill the first condition prerequisite 
to baptism: they have membership as a 
birthright in the visible Church. 



Why Infants Are Baptized 45 

Second Condition — Presumptive Regen- 
eration. 

Baptism, as we have seen, symbolizes 
regeneration, but presumptive regenera- 
tion is all that we can predicate of any 
candidate whether old or young. God 
only reads the heart, and we have reason to 
believe that all churches contain unworthy 
members. Among the apostles, called even 
by the Lord himself, there was a Judas; 
Paul was forsaken by Demas; and this 
experience has been repeated in every 
age. 

Thus in regard to the children of be- 
lievers, it cannot be asked that their regen- 
eration shall be proved as an invariable 
fact, but only that there shall be proved to 
be in its favor a presumption such as we 
deem necessary in the case of adult candi- 
dates for the same sacrament. 

That there is warrant for such presump- 
tion, and that the children of believers are 
to be treated as regenerate, we argue 
from the following considerations: — 



4-6 Why Infants Are Baptized 

i. The regeneration of infants is pos- 
sible. 

(a) Regeneration is a work of the Holy 
Ghost, transforming the soul. It is the 
divine side of that great change of which 
the human side is " repentance " {jxtrd^aa) 
or conversion. Logically, the act of God 
must precede the act of man, although in 
point of time they may be often coincident. 
The Holy Ghost can change the heart of 
the confirmed bigot and persecutor Saul ; 
he can transform, if it pleases him so to 
do, the moral nature of an infant. 

(£) A conscious acceptance of Christ at 
the moment of regeneration is not a 
necessary accompaniment. We believe 
that all children dying in unconscious in- 
fancy are saved. They enter heaven only 
as redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, 
and as with a moral nature transformed 
by the power of the Holy Ghost. Their 
first conscious thought must be in har- 
mony with the will of God, but the 
great moral change — their regeneration 



Why Infants Are Baptized 4J 

— preceded it while they were still un- 
conscious.* 

2. This moral change wrought by the 
Holy Ghost is credible in the case of the 
children of believers. 

{a) Because it is spiritually parallel to 
church membership, the proof of which in 
their case has been already cited. If the 
external relationship is permitted, the 
higher spiritual relationship that alone 
gives it value may be expected. 

(b) Because of the reiterated promises 
that children shall be blessed spiritually as 
well as temporally with their parents. 

(c) Because there is no limit to the spirit- 
ual blessings that God vouchsafes in an- 
swer to the prayer of faith. 

Certainly it would be an incomparable 
spiritual blessing were our children re- 

* " Moreover infants who are to be saved (and that some 
are saved at this age is certain) must, without question, be 
previously regenerated by the Lord. For if they bring in- 
nate corruption with them from their mother's womb, they 
must be purified before they can be admitted into the king- 
dom of God, into which shall not enter anything that de- 
fileth." — Calvin, Institute iv. xvi. i. See Appendix, Note C. 



4-8 Why Infants Are Baptized 

generate from the very hour of birth. 
There is no spiritual gift which is possible 
for which we are not encouraged to pray 
in hope of a response from on high. As 
this blessing is plainly possible, it becomes 
a duty to pray for it, and if we do thus 
pray in faith, have we not every assurance 
that our prayer will be heard ? 

(d) Because faithful training, which is 
one of the divinely appointed means of 
grace, can be foreseen by God and re- 
sponded to by an anticipatory blessing. 

(e) Because in no other way under 
human instrumentality can the growth of 
the Church be so certainly assured as by 
the nurture within her bosom of a godly 
seed. 

3. Not only is the regeneration from 
earliest infancy of the children of believers 
possible and credible, but Scripture expres- 
sions encourage us to expect it. 

' ' Thou art he that took me out of the 
womb: thou didst make me hope when 
I was upon my mother's breasts. I was 



Why Infants Are Baptized •/<? 

cast upon thee from the womb: from my 
mother's womb, my God art thou." Ps. 
xxii. 9, 10. 

" Thou art my trust from my youth. 
By thee have I been holden up from the 
womb." Ps. lxxi. 5, 6. 

"And did not he make one ? Yet had 
he the residue of the spirit. And where- 
fore one ? That he might seek a godly 
seed." Mai. ii. 15. 

"And, ye fathers, provoke not your 
children to wrath : but bring them up 
(txTplyeze) in the nurture and admonition 
of the Lord." Eph. vi. 4. 

Of John it is said, "He shall be filled 
with the Holy Ghost, even from his 
mother's womb" (Luke i. 15); of Jere- 
miah, "Before I formed thee .... I 
knew thee ; and before thou earnest forth 
out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I 
ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." 
Jer. i. 5. 

4. Facts in the Church favor the belief 
that the children of believers are to be 



jo Why Infants Are Baptized 

presumed regenerate till the contrary 
appears. 

(a) Scripture examples are many. We 
read of Samuei (i Sam. i. 27, 28; ii. 11, 
18, 26; iii. 1); of Jeremiah (Jer. i. 5); of 
John the Baptist. Luke i. 15. 

(£) Where parents pray in faith for the 
presence of the Holy Spirit upon their 
children, are watchful in Christian nurture 
and look for the evidences of a spiritual 
change, ordinarily they are not disap- 
pointed. They do not indeed find their 
children free from temptation, folly, and 
sin, any more than they find the adult 
Christian perfectly sanctified ; but they do 
710 1 ordinarily find their children com- 
mitted to the service of the devil. On the 
other hand, they find their earliest emo- 
tions drawn out toward God with sincere 
desire to do his will. There is no Chris- 
tian who has not seen such instances and 
rejoiced in them. The reason, alas! that 
they are not more frequent is that very 
seldom do parents have such faith; and 



Why Infants Are Baptized 5 1 

still more rarely do they train their off- 
spring as young Christians within the 
Church of God. 

(c) The great majority of those who con- 
fess Christ before men are children of 
Christian parents. So true is this that, 
notwithstanding the want of faith upon 
the part of parents and their neglect of 
true Christian nurture, there is little risk 
in saying that the spiritual condition at 
twenty years of age, of any given number 
of children of Christian parents, would 
compare favorably with the condition, 
twenty years after baptism, of the same 
number of persons presumptively converted 
and baptized in adult years. 

5. All Churches that baptize infants do 
so upon the ground that they may be re- 
generated in infancy. 

This is of course true of those Churches 
(the Roman and Greek*) which hold that 

* * The Greek Church baptizes infants, but at the same 
time insists upon immersion as the proper mode, thus in- 
dicating that there is no necessary connection, as some 
seem to think, between restriction in reference to the sub- 



52 Why Infants Are Baptized 

the sacraments convey spiritual grace 
ex opere operato ; but it is equally true 
of the different branches of the Reformed 
Church which most earnestly deny that 
any such efficacy is inherent in the sacra- 
ment itself. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church 
teaches (Art. 27) : " Baptism is not only a 
sign of profession and mark of difference, 
but is also a sign of regeneration or New 
Birth. " In the Baptismal Office the words 
are used " Seeing that this child is regen- 
erate,* and grafted into the body of 
Christ's Church. " This is often construed 
to mean more than we have maintained ; 
it certainly means no less. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church re- 
peats essentially (Art. 17) the 27th Article 
of the Episcopal Church. 

The Rev. Mr. Hibbard, in a work that 
has the endorsement of the Methodist 
Book Concern, says: "In the following 

jects and restriction in regard to mode. See Appendix, 
Note D. 

* See Appendix, Note E. 



Why Infants Are Baptized 



Jj> 



treatise I have assumed that infants are 
in a regenerated state," (p. 5) and again, 

''Infants are in a gracious state 

Baptism is an outward sign of an inward 
work of grace, .... a token of confirma- 
tion that the subject belongs to the spirit- 
ual family of God. All who belong to 
the spiritual family of God are entitled to 
baptism " (p. 89). 

The Lutheran Church holds that "The 
regeneration or new life implanted by 
means of baptism in the case of an infant 
is the gracious presence and activity of 
God in the Holy Ghost. The infant does 
not resist the work of the Holy Ghost, and 
when therefore grace is offered in baptism 
there is divinely wrought a receptivity of 
grace. The baptismal grace bestowed on 
infants, however, first comes into exercise 
through self-conscious repentance and 
faith." Standards, as quoted in the Lu- 
theran Cyclopcedia. 

The Church of the United Brethren 
(Moravian) teaches in the Litany at Bap- 



54- Why Infants Are Baptized 

tism of Children : "Baptism is the an- 
swer of a good conscience toward God, 
who hath saved us by the washing of re- 
generation and renewing of the Holy 
Ghost, which is shed on us abundantly 
through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Chil- 
dren, also, may be made partakers of this 
grace. " The Heidelberg Catechism teaches 
(Ques. 74) : " Are infants also to be bap- 
tized ? Yes ; for since they, as well as the 
adult, are included in the covenant and 
Church of God, and since redemption from 
sin by the blood of Christ and the Holy 
Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to 
them no less than to the adult ; they must, 
therefore," etc. 

The Dordrecht Confession of Faith 
teaches (Art. 34): "And indeed Christ 
shed his blood no less for the washing of 
the children of the faithful than for the 
adult persons; and, therefore, they ought 
to receive the sign and sacrament of that 
which Christ hath done for them. ' ' 

The Westminster Confession of Faith 



Why Infants Are Baptized 55 

having explained (Chap. 28, Sec. I) that 
1 ' Baptism is a sacrament of the New Tes- 
tament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only 
for the solemn admission of the party bap- 
tized into the visible Church, but also to 
be unto him a sign and seal of the coven- 
ant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, 
of regeneration . . . . , and of his giving 
up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk 
in newness of life," proceeds to say (Sec. 
IV): "Not only those that do actually 
profess faith in, and obedience unto 
Christ, but also the infants of one or both 
believing parents are to be baptized." 
(Sec. VI) "The efficacy of baptism is 
not tied to that moment of time wherein 
it is administered; yet, notwithstanding, 
by the right use of this ordinance the 
grace promised is not only offered, but 
really exhibited and conferred by the Holy 
Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) 
as that grace belongeth unto, according to 
the counsel of God's own will, in his ap- 
pointed time." 



j6 Why Infants Are Baptized 

In the Directory for Worship in the 
Presbyterian Church, the minister is en- 
joined to explain before baptism "That 
it is instituted by Christ ; that it is a seal 
of the righteousness of faith: that the 
seed of the faithful have no less a right to 
this ordinance, under the gospel, than the 
seed of Abraham to circumcision, under 
the Old Testament; that Christ com- 
manded all nations to be baptized ; that 
he blessed little children, declaring that 
of such is the kingdom of heaven; that 
children are federally holy, and therefore 
ought to be baptized ; that we are, by 
nature, sinful, guilty, and polluted, and 
have need of cleansing by the blood of 
Christ, and by the sanctifying influences 
of the Spirit of God." 

These quotations will suffice to show 
that among the standards of all churches 
which baptize infants there is a virtual 
agreement in regard to the significance of 
the sacrament in their case, and the as- 
sumption upon which it is to be adminis- 



Why Infants Are Baptized 57 

tered. This assumption, be it remem- 
bered, is not that in every instance regen- 
erating grace has been certainly accorded. 
This supposition is as impossible as in 
the face of facts to assume that all adult 
candidates will prove to have truly re- 
ceived the grace of God, or that all pro- 
fessors will be literally "saints" (dyiot — 
holy ones) ; but as sacraments and ordi- 
nances are framed for a Church in its 
normal condition, so the children of be- 
lievers may as properly be treated as regen- 
erate, which they certainly would be were 
their parents in the full sense of the 
word "holy," as the parents themselves 
may still be called, even by apostolic wis- 
dom, "saints." 

Inasmuch, therefore, as the regenera- 
tion in earliest infancy of the children of 
believers is not only possible but credible ; 
as the presumption of it is implied in cer- 
tain Scripture statements, and in many in- 
stances manifests itself as a fact ; and as 
it is, in the ways indicated, assumed in the 



j8 Why Infants Are Baptized 

standards of such Churches as permit the 
baptism of infants, the conclusion is a just 
one that the children of believers fulfill 
the second condition prerequisite to bap- 
tism, — they are, presumptively regenerate. 

Third condition — Capability of receiv- 
ing spiritual grace. 

If the conclusions already reached are 
just, it is unnecessary to argue at length 
that infants may be made recipients of 
spiritual grace. There have been many 
discussions concerning the nature of 
original sin and the possibility of innate 
guilt, but the generally received Catholic 
view always has been that every soul 
possesses a moral character of some kind 
antecedent to its actual conscious choices. 
Thus by changes wrought in that moral 
character every soul, even before self-con- 
sciousness, is capable of receiving spiritual 
grace ; and infants, when brought by be- 
lieving parents to the sacrament of bap- 
tism, may receive or may have already re- 



Why Infants Are Baptized S9 

ceived that promised grace which, in the 
words of the Westminster Confession, is 
"not only offered but really exhibited and 
conferred by the Holy Ghost, to such 
(whether of age or infants) as that grace 
belongeth unto, according to the counsel 
of God's own will, in his appointed time." 

Any objection to this view, that special 
blessing, even in the case of infants, may 
be connected with the actual reception of 
baptism, applies equally to any conception 
of the sacraments that looks upon them as 
more than simply memorial rites. 

If special ordinances have been estab- 
lished by the great Head of the Church, 
and with them certain blessings promised, 
it will not do to say that, because these 
blessings are spiritual, it is a matter of in- 
difference whether or not the external or- 
dinance is observed. This is to insult God 
by dishonoring his commands. 

And if the blessing is the free gift of 
the Holy Spirit, vouchsafed in response to 
the prayer of faith and the act of obedi- 



60 Why Infa?its Are Baptized 

ence, it may be as certainly looked for 
when the believing parent, trusting in the 
abundant promises of God, brings his child 
to receive the appointed seal of his mem- 
bership in Christ's Church, as when the 
full-grown sinner, repenting and turning 
from the error of his ways, listens to the 
invitation of the gospel and bows to accept 
the offered sacrament. 

Thus the children of believers fulfill the 
third condition prerequisite to baptism, — 
they are capable of receiving spiritual 
grace. 

If, then, it is true, as we have endeav- 
ored to prove, that the infant children of 
believers fulfill all the conditions prerequi- 
site to baptism— namely, membership in 
the visible Church, presumptive regenera- 
tion, and capability of receiving spiritual 
grace — then it follows that we have as dis- 
tinct divine command to baptize such in- 
fants as to baptize adult believers. 



III. 



Scripture References. 



HE conclusions at which we thus 
arrive from the study of the 
meaning of the sacrament and 
of the qualifications of its re- 
cipients, as revealed in the Scriptures, is 
confirmed by the incidental references in 
apostolic history and in the inspired epis- 
tles. 

There are but seven cases recorded of 
baptisms of individuals designated by 
name. In two instances, those of Paul 
and the Ethiopian eunuch, there could 
have been no question in regard to chil- 
dren. In three of the remaining in- 
stances — namely, Lydia, the Philippian 
jailor, and Stephanas — it is expressly 
stated that with the head of the family the 

(6r) 



62 Why Infants Are Baptized 

" Jionsehold" was baptized, while in the 
cases of Cornelius and Crispus, though no 
express statement is made, the narrative 
leads us to the same conclusion. It is, of 
course, possible to assume that in none of 
these households were there young chil- 
dren, but this is not the natural inference. 
This specific and repeated mention of the 
baptism of "households " leads rather to the 
conviction that the facts are thus empha- 
sized with the express purpose of estab- 
lishing the propriety of baptizing the chil- 
dren of believers. 

It is to be noticed, too, that Paul, in epis- 
tles addressed specifically to "saints " in- 
cludes admonitions to the children. Eph. 
vi. 1-3; Col. iii. 20. 

Indeed, upon any other ground than the 
apostolic sanction, it seems impossible that 
the baptism of infants could have obtained 
the position in the Church that confessedly 
it held as early as the middle of the third 
century. See Neander's Ch. History, Vol. 
i, pp. 311 et seq. 



Why Infants Are Baptized 6j 

There would be at least some record of 
its introduction and of opposition to the 
innovation. 



IV. 



Position in the Church. 



T may also be safely affirmed 
tw^ that the position in the Church 
JJajL of children baptized in in- 
fancy is in all respects as fa- 
vorable to growth in grace as that of 
those who first enter in adult years. 
Both alike enter at the hopeful beginning 
of Christian life. The Church is not 
simply the home of the sanctified, but of 
those to be sanctified. It is the place 
where babes in Christ are to be nurtured 
and developed until they "come in the 
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of 
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto 
the measure of the stature of the fullness 
of Christ." 

The adult no more than the infant is a 
5 (65) 



66 Why Infants Are Baptized 

perfected saint. The one question is 
whether he believes upon the Lord Jesus 
Christ. He is welcomed, even though he 
be ignorant in regard to many points of 
doctrinal belief, very imperfect in moral 
character, and entirely undisciplined in the 
duties of Christian life. Indeed there is, 
humanly speaking, greater risk involved 
in undertaking his future Christian nur- 
ture than that of the child born of Chris- 
tian parents, guarded and cherished by 
their watchful love, strengthened by their 
prayers, and thus developing and growing 
up from tender infancy within the sacred 
pale of the Church. 

We may add that the principles which 
we believe thus to establish the duty of 
infant baptism also apply in their general 
form to those cases where children are 
presented by Christians who, though not 
the parents, are willing and able to take 
their place — to stand in loco parentis — and 
assume to the full extent the obligations 
of the Christian nurture of the infant dis- 



Why Infants Are Baptized 

ciple. This quasi-parental relation is the 
true foundation of what is sometimes 
termed "household baptism." 

It seems also to be the ground upon 
which originally sponsors were required. 
The custom had its rise in the time of perse- 
cution, when Christian parents were liable 
to be torn away from their infant children, 
and some assurance was needed that those 
thus bereft of their natural guardians 
would not be allowed to lapse into idola- 
try. In the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
where this custom is still continued, it is 
assumed that the sponsors are themselves 
true believers and are willing and able to 
care for the spiritual nurture of the child 
in whose name they have confessed the 
Christian faith. * 

* See Office for the *' Ministration of Public Baptism of 
Infants," Prot. Epis. Prayer Book. 



V 



Objections 



T seems proper, in order to com- 
cI4r pl ete the consideration of this 
JP4 subject, to refer somewhat in 
detail to objections that, with 
more or less force, are urged against the 
baptism of infants. 

The following include those most com- 
monly proposed : 

/. Baptism can do an unconscious babe 
no good. 

With equal truth it may be said, bap- 
tism does the adult "no good" Immedi- 
ate moral effect upon the recipient is not 
the prime end and object of the sacra- 
ment. In the case of the infant, as in that 
of the adult, it indicates a relationship to 
the Church and symbolizes a spiritual state. 
(69) 



jo Why Infants Are Baptized 

So far as spiritual grace is imparted in 
the sacrament, it may be as truly con- 
ferred in the one case as in the other, and 
so far as promises of Christian life are 
concerned, the parents speak for the child. 

2. The Church is a voluntary associa- 
tion. It is not fair to put children therein 
without their consent. 

The question whether the Church is 
necessarily in every case a "voluntary 
association" is at issue. The great ma- 
jority of Christians do not believe that 
it is. If it is not fair that children should 
be so placed without their consent, still it 
is just what God permits in every other 
relation of life. Under the working of 
the great natural laws that for the wisest 
purpose he has ordained, one is born here, 
another there ; one in a palace, another 
in a hovel ; one in a Christian family, an- 
other in the home of a profligate or a 
criminal. Strangely enough, as some ma3 T 
think, children are not even consulted as to 
whether they shall be born at all. God 



Why Infants Are Baptized 71 

orders our lives in accordance with far- 
reaching plans, often far beyond our com- 
prehension. 

j. The view presented makes a distinction 
between children equally innocent in the 
sight of God. 

It does not hold that the children of be- 
lievers are by nature, aside from the ope- 
ration of the Spirit, any better than other 
children. 

It simply acknowledges facts that must 
be faced. The children of a Christian 
certainly are, ordinarily, born to the en- 
joyment of special advantages and privi- 
leges. If the parents are sincere, the chil- 
dren have their prayers, their faithful train- 
ing, their tender counsel. Nurtured amid 
all the advantages of the associations of the 
Church, the probabilities, humanly speak- 
ing, of such children developing as Chris- 
tians are almost infinitely greater than if 
they were children of heathen or of godless 
people. Is any greater distinction made in 
saying that they are born within the pale of 



72 Why Infants Are Baptized 

the Church ? The expression simply sums 
up the facts. 

4.. This view savors of " baptismal re- 
generation." 

On the other hand, it teaches just the 
opposite doctrine. The theory commonly 
called that of " baptismal regeneration" 
holds that by virtue of the application of 
water in the name of the Trinity the sac- 
rament becomes, ex opere operato, the 
efficacious means of regeneration. 

The view here presented looks upon the 
application of water in the sacrament as 
symbolizing the change already presump- 
tively accomplished by the power of theHoly 
Spirit. Here adults and infants stand upon 
precisely the same ground. While in both 
cases regeneration is the presumption, in 
neither case is it assumed as invariably or 
certainly accomplished. Nor do we in the 
one case more than in the other rebaptize 
those who, having lapsed into sin, are in 
after years, as they suppose for the first 
time, hopefully converted. 



Why Infants Are Baptized 73 

5. Whether a child shall grow up a 
Christian depends largely upon his train- 
ing. How, then, can he be regenerate 
antecedent to such influences ? 

The whole course of each life is from 
the beginning in the hand of God. The 
future training as well as the present 
prayer of faith is known to God. There 
is no greater mystery involved here than 
in any other case where God and man are 
coworkers. It is also true of the adult 
Christian that his future faithfulness de- 
pends largely upon the associations into 
which he shall be thrown. 

6. Under such a system there are church 
members who have not all the privileges of 
membership. 

Of course; just as there are infant mem- 
bers of a family under tutors and gover- 
nors; just as there are infant citizens of a 
State. That under certain circumstances 
there may be members of the Church who 
are not entitled to all its privileges must 
be admitted under any theory, e.g., mem- 



J4- Why Infants Are Baptized 

bers suspended from communion but 
not excommunicated. Infant church 
members, like adult, are entitled to all the 
privileges they are capable of enjoying - . 
Should an adult member become insane or 
idiotic he would not cease to be a member 
because he might be for the time incapable 
of enjoying all the privileges of the Church. 

Our Directory says of children of the 
Church, "When they come to years of 
discretion," and are otherwise qualified, 
1 ' they ought to be informed " {not that they 
then come into any new relationship, but) 
that "it is their duty and their privilege to 
come to the Lord's supper." 

/. Many persons are assumed to be mem- 
bers of the Church who in after years give 
little proof of being Christians. 

Very naturally ! while among those who 
have their children baptized there is such 
a lamentable want of knowledge, faith and 
fidelity in training; but the number is 
much smaller than is frequently alleged. 
The great majority of the children of the 



Why Infants Are Baptized 75 

Church, and especially of those whose 
spiritual culture has not been plainly 
neglected, do sooner or later manifest a 
living hope in Christ. It may be added 
that many such children, doubtless Chris- 
tians from infancy, being wrongly in- 
structed, wait, before avowing them- 
selves as such, for some further conscious, 
sudden change or mysterious experience 
which never comes, and gradually they 
fall into the position of backsliding Chris- 
tians. If the Church were in its normal 
condition there would be none such, either 
old or young, for the case of such chil- 
dren finds its precise parallel in that of 
many baptized in adult years. Some are 
false to their vows, or were self-deceived 
What has their baptism availed ? 

8. If church members t children who do not 
live as Christia?is should be disciplined. 

In effect they are. If, when of sufficient 
years, they refuse to confess Christ, they are 
virtually suspended from communion. A 
State might require that all children upon 



76 Why Infants Are Baptized 

reaching maturity should take the oath of 
allegiance. If any refused to do so their 
rights as citizens would lapse. We have 
many adult Christians who neglect their 
privileges as communicants through mis- 
conception, morbid self-consciousness, or 
indifference, remaining for months and 
even years away from the sacramental 
table. Ordinarily, if their lives are not 
scandalous and they seem honest in their 
misconception, we must content ourselves 
with advice and private expostulation. 

That the children of the Church are 
often neglected and allowed unrebuked to 
forget their responsibilities and wander 
away from spiritual influences is too true, 
and is a shame and a reproach to the office- 
bearers of our congregations. 

p. By his baptism in i?ifancy the child is 
defrauded of his privilege of freely choosing, in 
later years, his position, and thus confessing 
Christ for himself 

His choice is none the less free because he 
is surrounded by good influences, because 



Why Infants Are Baptized 77 

he receives the blessings of a Christian nur- 
ture, because from earliest childhood he 
feels the sweet attraction of Jesus and 
recognizes the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
In almost all churches, if he becomes in 
due time a communicant, he dees then 
publicly confess Christ and openly accept 
for himself the position into which he was 
born. 

10. False hopes are encouraged. Formal- 
ism takes the place of spiritual life. 

Any doctrine may be misunderstood or 
abused, but under proper instruction just 
the opposite is the case. Children are not 
taught that they are better, but that they 
have greater privileges and responsibili- 
ties for which they must render account. 
For privileges neglected there is heavier 
condemnation. Their spiritual condition 
is not determined by any assumption that 
they are regenerate. If they bring not 
forth fruits meet for repentance, so much 
the worse for them. 

With equal force it might be said that 



78 Why Infants Are Baptized 

the adult Christian will rest upon the fact 
of his past experience and church mem- 
bership. But if he proves by his acts that 
he is not a Christian, so much the more 
reason has he to tremble. So is it also 
with the youthful church member. 

II. Are not the children of Christians who 
reject infant baptism as frequently blessed as 
those of parents who accept it? 

Obviously such questions cannot be defi- 
nitely answered. Statistics are as impos- 
sible as they would be repugnant to our 
tenderest emotions, and the possible con- 
clusions of interested witnesses are, for 
manifest reasons, valueless ; but such chil- 
dren might well receive the blessing if 
their parents were faithful in their nurture, 
for if the children have a birthright in 
God's kingdom they would not be neces- 
sarily deprived of attendant benefits and 
privileges because of parental misconcep- 
tion. 

On the other hand, it may be added 
that it is to be. feared that among those 



Why Infants Are Baptized 79 

who present their children for baptism 
there are many who have little apprecia- 
tion of the significance of the sacrament, 
and consequently little expectation of any 
resultant blessing. 

Inasmuch, however, as blessings are 
granted in response to faith, if such diver- 
gent views were reflected in a consequent 
attitude of the parents, we should not look 
with the same confidence for early mani- 
festations of piety in the children of those 
who believe that some degree of knowl- 
edge, education and maturity must neces- 
sarily precede a change of heart, as in the 
children of those who accept the divine 
promise of a holy seed, who believe that 
their children are with them in the Church, 
who expect to find them growing up in 
the fear of the Lord, and who labor with 
them and pray for them in that blessed 
hope. 

We may add that the experience of 
churches which, without ignoring the ne- 
cessity of spiritual life, have emphasized 



So Why Infants Are Baptized 

the meaning' and importance of the baptism 
of infant children, fully justifies us in the 
opinion that it is no vain thing either in its 
effect upon parents or children. The 
Church of Scotland, notwithstanding the 
disturbing influence of the connection of 
Church and State, which tended to foster 
formalism, for many years presented a 
wonderful spectacle of children, generation 
after generation, growing up in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord, and in faith 
and piety walking in the footsteps of their 
fathers in the house of God. 



VI 



Importance of Right Views 



F the views expressed in this 
<I*m* essa y are correct, the subject 
JOP^- of the baptism of infants de- 
mands a more important place 
in the minds of pastors and Christian par- 
ents than is usually accorded it. As we 
have already said, this is not a question 
merely of establishing one theory or 
another. If, as we firmly believe, there 
is historically, logically, and scripturally, 
no tenable middle ground between the 
position that this sacrament in the case of 
infants means precisely what it does in the 
case of adults, and the position that there 
is no authority whatever for the baptism 
of infants, then the whole question of the 
true mode of Christian nurture with its 

6 (Sr) 



82 Why Infants Are Baptized 

manifest bearing- upon the future growth 
of the Church, is in our judgment in- 
volved in this matter. 

Our Baptist brethren very largely owe 
their success as a denomination to their 
distinct, unanimous, and consistent utter- 
ance upon this subject. Though, as we 
believe, entirely wrong in their theory of 
the organization of the Church, yet they 
have distinctly known upon what principles 
they have rested, and their trumpet has 
given forth no uncertain sound. Hence 
their power with many inquirers. Few 
such have either opportunity or inclina- 
tion to examine carefully for themselves, 
the teachings upon this subject of Church 
history or the Scriptures. 

On the other hand too many of our 
Protestant and non-ritualistic Churches in 
their noble protest against that formalism, 
worldliness, and mere ritualism, which tend 
to sap spiritual life, and which in New 
England culminated in the system known 
as the " half way covenant," have assumed 



Why Infants Are Baptized 8j 

a position that, while nominally retaining 
the practice of baptizing infants, really 
emasculates the meaning of the sacrament, 
or so belittles it that it no longer com- 
mands respect. 

"The abolition of the abuses of the 
doctrine of infant church membership, 
has been accomplished in a manner and 
in circumstances which have led to the 
forgetting, ignoring or disowning of that 
precious truth itself, and the loss of not a 
little of the sanctifying influence and fruits 
of holiness that cluster upon it. The con- 
sciousness and recognition of the church 
membership of baptized children have 
widely disappeared from the doctrinal and 
practical life of those churches — a fact 
deplored by some, and denied by none of 
authority among them."* 

It would be a far less evil and fraught 
with fewer dangers to the future of the 
Church, to reject altogether the baptism 
of infants than simply to tolerate it as a 

* Children of the Church, p. 31. 



84 Why Infants Are Baptized 

harmless, edifying, traditional usage, the 
continuance of which gives periodical op- 
portunity for an affectionate rehearsal of 
the responsibilities of parents. 

Yet this last is no caricature of the posi- 
tion in reference to the sacrament of bap- 
tism in the case of infants, of hundreds of 
members of our Presbyterian and other 
evangelical churches throughout the land. 

On the other hand what gracious fruit- 
age under the divine blessing might well 
be expected if throughout the Church 
there were a deep-seated conviction that 
when infants receive this sacrament they 
receive in very deed the ' ' sign and the 
seal of their ingrafting into Christ, of re- 
generation, of remission of sins, and of 
their giving up unto God, through Jesus 
Christ, to walk in newness of life" ! * 

Such conviction could not fail to be 
followed by an awakening of the Church 
to its special responsibilities in regard to 
its infant members. Such children are, as 

* Confession of Faith, Chap, xviii, Sec. 1. 



Why Infants Are Baptized 85 

our Directory expresses it, "under the 
inspection and government of the Church." 

They should be the object of special 
tenderness and care upon the part of those 
to whom is committed the feeding of the 
flock. They should not be expected to 
grow up to partial maturity outside the 
11 pale of the Church, ' and avowedly com- 
mitted to the service of the devil. They 
should receive special instruction in regard 
to their privileges and responsibilities, and 
always be addressed as those who, it 
is assumed, are conscious of their birth- 
right and rejoice to own it before the 
world. They should be encouraged at the 
earliest possible age to be present at the 
stated services and prayer meetings of the 
church, and under direction of pastor or 
elders to take public part among their 
fellows in age in such social religious ex- 
ercises. Above all, they should be im- 
pressed with the thought that there is no 
age at which they are too young to be the 
object of the Saviour's special tender care, 



86 Why Infants Are Baptized 

or, upon their part, as earnest, loving dis- 
ciples, to give him their whole heart. 

So soon as they have sufficient knowl- 
edge, and give evidence of sincere desire 
to come to the Lord's table, they should 
be informed that it is their privilege so to 
do.* 

* Directory for Worship, Chap, x, Sec. I. 




VII 

Responsibilities and Privileges 

jCCEPTING the foregoing conclu- 
sions, it is evident that great 
and peculiar responsibilities rest 
upon Christian parents; responsibilities 
that by no possibility can they delegate 
to others. To them is committed the 
nurture of the children of the Church 
— the infant disciples of Jesus — and upon 
their faithfulness depend, under God, the 
Christian life of these little ones, and, in 
large measure, the future of the Church 
itself. 

They have no ground because of the 
baptism of these children for presumptuous 
self-satisfaction or a careless optimism in 
regard to them. So far from resting con- 
tent in the thought that their offspring 

m 



88 Why Infants Are Baptized 

have received the seal of baptism as an 
ecclesiastical ordinance, they are never to 
forget that the solemn rite has meaning 
only as signifying and presupposing the 
spiritual relation which it symbolizes, and 
that such spiritual relationship can be as- 
sured only by the grace of God who with 
foreknowledge of their prayers, their love, 
their watchfulness, their conscientious un- 
tiring zeal, responds to their faith by an 
anticipatory blessing, the greatest that 
can be accorded an immortal soul. 

If, as is alas! too often the case, the 
parents are so thoroughly absorbed in the 
secular pursuits of the day— the increasing 
excitements of our driving business com- 
munities, or the dissipating follies of our 
fashionable social life— that they have 
" no time" to foster the spiritual life of 
their children, and no interest in directing 
their associations and forming their habits, 
what should they expect under the ordin- 
ary laws of God's realm, but that in after 
years they shall have tears to shed over 



Why Infants Are Baptized Sp 

the wayward youth, the lost manhood, the 
frivolous womanhood, of those who were 
committed to their care ? 

There may be also irreparable injury 
done simply from wrong convictions upon 
the part of parents. 

If they assume that it is incredible that 
they should find their infant children al- 
ready brought by the power of the Holy 
Spirit into a gracious state, and therefore 
urge unceasingly the futility of all at- 
tempts to live a Christian life until some 
new, sudden, and mysterious change has 
been experienced, they may lay a burden 
upon the young Christian life from which 
it will never be entirely relieved. A 
sudden and surprising illumination may 
perhaps be expected in the case of one 
who, like Saul, has been an open scoffer at 
the claims of Jesus, and then, like him, 
suddenly stricken down before the power 
of the cross; but far otherwise are the 
natural manifestations of religious life in 
one who, "born within the pale of the visi- 



go Why Infa?its Are Baptized 

ble Church," has been brought up "in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

We have known little children who 
could not remember the time when they 
did not love their Saviour, pray earnestly, 
almost agonizingly, for some mysterious 
revelation, and then pause and wait in 
breathless expectancy for something to 
happen. 

We have known men and women who 
professed to trust in Christ as a Saviour, 
and who gave every evidence of desiring 
to walk with him, pass on for years un- 
willing publicly to avow themselves Chris- 
tians and take their place at the Lord's 
table, because they could not escape from 
the bondage of the conviction of the 
necessity of some new and violent revolu- 
tion in feeling, a change that they had long 
despaired of ever experiencing. 

But if the responsibilities are great the 
privileges are inestimable. What higher 
honor can be accorded to devout men and 
women than to have God's children in- 



Why Infants Are Baptized <?/ 

trusted to them to be trained within his 
kingdom ! What greater privilege can be 
theirs than to pray with serene confidence 
for the signs of the Holy Spirit's presence, 
knowing that they shall not be disap- 
pointed! What more fascinating study 
than that of the peculiarities of temper 
and disposition of their little ones and of 
the methods and influences by which they 
may be counseled and guided aright ! At 
times these privileges will assume a tender 
and all-absorbing interest. ' ' Very young 
children religiously educated, it will be re- 
membered by almost every grown-up 
person, have many times of great religious 
tenderness, when they are drawn apart in 
though tfuln ess and prayer. The effort 
should be to make these little silent pen- 
tecosts and gentle openings Godward, 
sealing-times of the Spirit, and have the 
family always in such keeping as to be 
a congenial element for such times; and 
to suffer no possible hindrance or opposing 
influence, even should they come and go 



9 2 Why Infants Are Baptized 

unobserved."* Thus guarding- with watch- 
ful care the ripening soul, parents in all 
ordinary cases will not need to wait long 
before they will see even their imperfect 
work owned by God, cheered by the 
quick blossoming of gracious affections 
implanted by the Holy Spirit and early 
crowned by the voluntary consecration of 
their loved ones to the service of the 
blessed Master. 



* Bushnell, Christian Nurture, p. 383. 



VIII 



Encouragement 




UR Lord and Master, that he might 
touch all stages of human life and 
become the perfect example to 
the infant disciple as truly as to the aged 
saint, did not disdain to be born a helpless 
babe with every experience of increasing 
years still awaiting him. It is of him 
that the evangelist writes: "And the child 
grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with 
wisdom : and the grace of God was upon him." 
The fullness of the meaning of such 
words as these when spoken of the Child 
Jesus we cannot undertake to explain: 
and yet, as the writer is manifestly speak- 
ing of the human side of our Lord's per- 
sonality and his gradual development as 
a man it would seem that the reference is 

(93) 



9J. Why Infants Are Baptized 

not to supernatural qualities or gifts, but 
to that favor and blessing which the heav- 
enly Father is ever ready to bestow upon 
all who yield their spirit to his guidance. 
What imagination can picture the su- 
preme loveliness of this holy Child who 
with the dew of youth upon his brow, the 
light of spotless purity in his eye, and the 
charm of ineffable tenderness in his gra- 
cious mien, is most vividly portrayed by 
the words: " The grace of God was upon 



Once only during these early years of 
our Lord is the curtain lifted, but it dis- 
closes a scene that pictures to the world 
the ideal of youth. It is the scene upon 
which Mary looked when, anxious and 
weary with her search, she pressed her 
way into the porch of the court of the 
temple and saw her Son sitting in the 
midst of the teachers, both hearing them 
and asking them questions. Many artists 
have attempted to depict the guileless face 
of the Child illumined with the light of the 



Why Infants Are Baptized pS 

grace of God; the grave yet wondering 
countenances of the encircling rabbis, 
and the tender, anxious face of the mother 
as she whispers her troubled question in 
the ear of her Son. But who can portray, 
either by artist's pencil or by spoken word 
a scene which is without parallel in the 
history of the world and which yet repre- 
sents the Child Jesus as the type and sym- 
bol of all that youth ought to be, and 
toward which every child of man may by 
the grace of God aspire? 

What more would be needed to prove 
that upon any one of our dear children 
rested the grace of God than to see devel- 
oping in his ripening soul those three char- 
acteristics which in that temple scene are 
plainly manifest in the radiant person of 
the Son of Mary: an eager questioning 
after the truth, a willing submission to 
parental guidance, a solemn, joyful conse- 
cration to the service of the heavenly 
Father? 

The grace of God, which finds its fruit- 



p6 Why Infants Are Baptized 

age in such results, may be the dower of 
any child whose heart early goes out 
toward the divine Saviour and Master. 

Of the tender sympathy of that divine 
Master what parent can doubt who remem- 
bers that the Son of Mary in his riper 
years took little infants in his arms and 
said : ' ' Suffer little children to come unto 
m and forbid them not: for of such is 
the kingdom of God. " 

Were the Church in a normal condition, 
herself answering to the ideal bride of 
the risen Lord, can we doubt that her chil- 
dren, upon whom rests the seal of the 
sacrament of baptism, would, one and 
all, growing up in the nurture and admo- 
nition of the Lord, develop the rich graces 
of a consecrated Christian life ? 

Should not parents earnestly question 
themselves whether they really desire 
these heavenly gifts for their children ? 
What thoughts most frequently fill their 
minds when they forecast the future of 
their little ones ? Is it that they may be 



Why Infants Are Baptized 97 

prosperous and successful in worldly 
things, accumulate wealth, move in ex- 
clusive or fashionable circles of society, 
acquire position and fame ? or that the 
grace of God may be upon them, and that 
they may know the joy of being about 
their Father's business ? 

If this latter is their sincere desire and 
earnest prayer, they may be assured that 
their earnest endeavor thus to influence 
their children will be owned and blessed 
on high, and that they will not fail of an 
exceeding great reward. 

Finally, by such Christian nurture, as 
truly as by direct conquest from the 
world, God provides for the growth of his 
Church. 

"Christian nurture, beginning in in- 
fancy, inheriting traditional influences, 
and surrounded at the first dawn of con- 
sciousness by a religious atmosphere, is 
the normal and divine method for propa- 
gating the Church. Of this method the 
baptism of infants is the visible exponent 
7 



98 Why Infants Are Baptized 

and the mutual pledge between God and 
his believing people." * 

He with whom is all power does not dis- 
claim in his spiritual kingdom the same 
natural laws of parental influence by 
which from generation to generation na- 
tions are enlarged, and arts, sciences, and 
civilization, made more and more to cover 
the face of the globe. Because the Church 
has a glorious aggressive work to accom- 
plish, attacking in the name of the Lord the 
strongholds of sin and Satan, and thus con- 
quering the world for her King, she must 
not forget that her strength, her vigor, her 
triumph, depend still more upon her holy 
care of those whom God commits to her 
charge, to be cherished in her arms and 
nourished at her breast. 

* H. J Van Dyke, The Church, Her Ministry and 
Sacraments, p. 114. 



APPENDIX 

Note A. Page io 
History 

At the present time a large number of very 
sincere and excellent Christians disapprove of the 
baptism of infants. But this number, though 
large in the aggregate, is relatively small, embrac- 
ing less than one in fifty of the whole body of 
professed believers throughout the world. 

As we go back in the history of the centuries, 
we find that the number of those who oppose the 
practice grows smaller and smaller, until in the 
sixteenth century they appear to be very few and 
to be universally regarded as heretics. 

There is, however, a distinct record of the exist- 
ence, among the Waldenses, in the twelfth cen- 
tury, of Christians called Petro-Brussians, who 
denied the propriety of baptizing infants. 

Beyond this date the accounts of alleged dissent 
from the then universal practice are very obscure 
(99) 

UofC. 



ioo Appendix — Notes 

and contradictory. Yet, as the records of the 
earlier centuries were in the hands of those who 
looked upon all dissent as rank heresy, it is not to 
be doubted, in view of the reports that have sur- 
vived, that in every age there were Christians, 
more or less in number and more or less obscure 
in their lives, who contended that the baptism of 
infants was unscriptural and unauthorized. Still 
the number must have been very small during the 
earlier centuries, for Augustine, writing early in 
the fifth century, declares that he " never met 
with any Christian, either of the general Church or 
of any of the sects, nor with any writer who owned 
the authority of the Scriptures, who taught any 
other doctrine t'lan that infants are to be baptized 
for the remission of sin ; " and Pelagius asserts 
that he had " never h.ard of anyone, not even a 
heretic, who denied infant baptism." (See Hall, 
Law of Baptism, pp. 189, et seg.) 

In the third and fourth centuries, although the 
necessity of baptizing infants was generally ac- 
knowledged, the practice was not uniform. (Ques- 
tion at council at Carthage, A.D. 252 ) 

The references to infant baptism, earlier than 
the third century, are in dispute. When accepted 
as genuine they are interpreted according to the 
convictions of the inquirer. On the one side it is 



A;;. : .—.". \: 






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:: iir ;:i:-i:r 

__ _ ^ _ . _ - - - 



z :: 






Ac good 












J02 Appendix— Notes 

specified ; but she does not deny that God may 
work in the souls of men previous to their baptism ; 
nay ! she does not deny that there may be true 
spiritual life in them before baptism. But that 
spiritual life she does not call the new birth till it 
is manifested in the sacrament of regeneration. 
We must remember that the terms new birth and 
regeneration are images borrowed from natural 
objects and applied to spiritual objects. In nature 
we b lieve life to exist in the infant before it is 
born — life, too, of the same kind as its life 
after birth. Nay ! if there be no life before it is 
born there will be none after it is born. So, the 
unbaptized may not be altogether destitute of 
spiritual life; yet the actual birth may be con- 
sidered as taking place at baptism ; when there is 
not only life, but life apparent, life proclaimed to 
the world ; when the soul receives the seal of 
adoption, is counted in the family of God, and not 
only partakes of God's grace and mercy, but has a 
covenanted assurance and title to it." — Browne ' s 
Expositio?i of Thirty-nine Articles, p. 647. 

Robertson of Brighton, after saying in words al- 
ready quoted, that baptism makes a child a child 
of God only as coronation makes a sovereign, 
adds, " Baptism naturally stands in Scripture for 
the title of regeneration and the moment of it." 



Appendix— XoUs ioj 

A prominent Lotheran clergyman writes: "In 

izizzzzr :z 1 i: zzzzt : :' :i:z5zi I rz rtztrzz : z 
" ZZTIZ — ■ 5: ±~ _;;;;' 

:z- Zfamdh :: "7 tone, who teach {tkeex 
::-: :;:--:: -.11: :z± izzzzzztzz yirzrr ~z? z=.z 
outward ad. In the case of infants as they do 
z:: ::r" zir rriii rftrti Lz :i;zfzz z: it H:Ly 

- - .I: - :' ":: 

Lz 12 r :ii r : :* 1 i zl:i I zzr : z. z 7 

:ii:zrs zzz: zzt ;.z:rizzrz: i:t= z:: :tf : t: - 

: :zz _ c-ze : zz_ z z _ 1 : : _ r~. : i~ zszz 
t t 7 7 : .-.;z:':t: .:.:: Izzifz rt-ir: z zif 

:t :: :zz z-f zzz ii rz 



Note C. Page 38 

I "-::: /tzz; 

Theambigii: statement :: the 

7izz Z'z^z X 5z: : zzz: Zlz: 

. :Z"ZZZ1 1ZZ1 : 



rz:.E ~'z: ;:'":'.: 5: :z: *iz: 
zrr:t-i ie zz:z z: :z;z : 



io j. Appendix — Notes 

in infancy who were not saved. At the present 
time it is usually quoted only as an illustration 
of the alleged narrowness of vision of the framers 
of the symbol. 

It should be remembered, however, that the 
statement was undoubtedly introduced into the 
Confession not with any primary intention of distin- 
guishing between elect and nonelect infants, but 
as a protest against the Romish doctrine, that un- 
baptized infants were lost, and as an emphatic 
statement of the Protestant view of salvation 
through Christ alone. The emphasis is not upon 
the word "elect" but upon the words "dying in 
infancy" The chapter in which the statement oc- 
curs is not treating of Electionbut of Effectual Call- 
ing, and the antithesis is not between elect and non- 
elect, but between such of the former as die in 
infancy and such as live to be " outwardly called." 

While it would be probably too much to say 
that there were none in that Assembly who 
doubted in regard to the salvation of all infants 
dying in infancy, it may be safely affirmed that in 
making this reference there was no deliberate 
purpose upon the part of the Assembly to formu- 
late a dogmatic statement that by necessary impli- 
cation would teach that any infants dying in 
infancy are lost. 



Appendix — Notes J 03 

Note D. Page 42 
The Mode of Baptism 

To the present writer the question of the origi- 
nal mode of baptism, whether by sprinkling, af- 
fusion, immersion, or submersion, has never 
seemed to have the importance attached to it by- 
many others. 

Even could it be proved that the sacrament in 
apostolic times was administered only in one 
mode, and also, as some affirm, that the word 
"baptize" (Greek j3a7TTi^u) signified only immer- 
sion (or, more exactly, submersion), it would not 
appear to him conclusively proved that the same 
mode was essential in all ages to the validity of 
the sacrament. 

As, however, reasons for this opinion, that to 
him appear conclusive, would probably be chal- 
lenged by those who differ with him as to the 
proper practice, he would add that he by no means 
admits that it can be proved that in apostolic 
times the sacrament was administered exclusively 
by immersion, much less by submersion, which is 
the contention of a large and influential branch of 
the Church to-day. 

The difficulties in the way of establishing this 
contention are obvious, and have been often enu- 



io6 Appendix— Notes 

mcrated. Aside from the proverbial difficulty of 
proving a negative, and the valid presumption aris- 
ing from the immemorial practice of the large 
majority of Christians, the following points may 
be noted : — 

i. The aprio)'i improbability of appointing a nec- 
essary rite in a form that would be frequently in- 
convenient and at times impracticable, as, for ex- 
ample, in mortal illness, or in the Arctic regions. 

2. The fact that historically there is no record 
back to apostolic days of any period in which bap- 
tism was administered only by submersion. 

3. The earliest delineations, such as the rude 
pictorial representations in the Catacombs, indi- 
cate baptism by affusion. 

4. The directions concerning baptism in the 
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (AIAAXH), a 
document dating back to the second century, 
"possibly as far back as A.D. 120, hardly later 
than A.D. 160." The seventh chapter reads: 
"Now, concerning baptism, thus baptize ye: 
having first uttered all these things, baptize 
into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Spirit, in running water. But if thou 
hast not running water, baptize in other water ; 
and if thou canst not in cold, then in warm. But 
if thou hast neither, pour water upon the head 



Arr. : :" r— _Y :.: : ' 



Francis Brown, pages 15, 33.) 

5. The extreme improbability, in view of the 
absence (aside from public reservoirs) of large 

y::"f ::" :.\z: :: f.~: .-: : ?::-:--.-.:.? :'~.i: ir. :r.e 
iiy ?£-:=■: :s: :r. "c:_5.-- :~ :>.-;-: :;.:..:;.-.::■;•:- 
5 -5 t. r.-i ::.y: .:-: I : ;;':-::• 

:. .h;.: iI:Ji;_ r -:~ \: :t ::i::.:y -.::■.- -.; : :' :'-.-: 
Greek word 3*rru, and (apart from ceremonial 
usage) of its derivative > "to dip"" or 

" to immerse'" (not necessarily smfamnrge), it can 
hardly be successfully maintained that in the 
Heller-ii-: .1::-:< :: ::.: f::::^.:.: :.' :. :he N-: 
Testament it so invariably means to smhm&ge 
completely, that therefore any act short of sub~ 
— erf;:- :?. ■■:.[. ::.::? ::-: ?j. : r.i_~ f r. : 

A ft .'.'. . r:-;.:.. :-.; • ■.'.?..-.: = . '.~ il. :: :t.z~ 
submersion is very improbable, and in some of 
them practically excluded. 

Ecclesiasrjcus (Apocrypha) xxx '■ He 

that wasbeth himself i 3marnQqtm$ because of a 
dr-ii :■: i./ — ;.-. t".:.-: ~ : :•::"■: :■: - .: = :: :: : :er-:~;- 
~:.il :le j. "?..".£ : ' 5rr!~k*:~r ::~~a~iri ~ N_~- 
bers xbt. iS: "And a clean person shall take 
hyssop, and dip kin the water, and sprinkle it 
upon him that touched .... one dead."" It may 



108 Appendix— Notes 

be noticed also that the word " dip," with reference 
to the hyssop is in the Septuagint *' ftafei" which 
may mean immerse but hardly submerge. 

Daniel iv. 33 (Septuagint iv. 30) : " And he 
[Nebuchadnezzar] was driven from men, .... 
and his body was wet {kf$cuprj) with the dew of heaven. 

Mark vii. 4: "And when they come from the 
maiketplace, except they wash (fiatrrUfavreu , but in 
some manuscripts pav-touvrai) they eat not : and 
many other things, .... as the washing (fiaimtr- 
povc;) of cups, .... and of tables {k/avuv— couches 
or beds.) (Omitted in some manuscripts). 

Luke xi. 38 : " And when the Pharisee saw it, he 
marveled that he [Jesus] had not first washed 
(eftcnrTicdi?) before dinner." 

To the present writer the probabilities seem to 
be that very early in the Hellenistic usage the word 
"baptize" when used with ceremonial reference, 
acquired a ritualistic meaning nearly parallel to 
"cleanse" or "lustrate," and that the mode of 
administration in early post-apostolic days, while 
perhaps more frequently by immersion, was in 
numerous exceptional cases by affusion or pour- 
ing, the administrator and the recipient standing 
together in the stream from which the water was 
dipped (see Teaching of the Apostles, as above). 
In the New Testament there is no intimation of 



Appendix — Notes iog 

the mode of baptism excepting as it is inferred 
from the meaning of the word. 

But as has been already suggested, the question 
of the mode of baptism is of little importance as 
compared with that of the proper subjects. There 
is no branch of the Church that prohibits the ad- 
ministration of the sacrament by submersion, if 
from conscientious scruples the applicant desires 

that method. 

Note E. Page 43 

Meaning of Anglican Baptismal Office 
In the Church of England and in the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in this country there has always 
been a wide diversity of opinion as to the signifi- 
cance of the expression : " Seeing now that this 
child is regenerate." C. W. Andrews, D.D., re- 
marks : "This regeneration is pronounced upon 
the profession of faith by the child himself which 
immediately precedes. It is not the sponsor who 
professes faith, but the child by the sponsor, and 
this, not that he will believe, but that he the?i be- 
lieves. The faith is admitted to be hypothetical, 
regeneration is the corresponding hypothesis. 
The faith is as positively professed as the regen- 
eration is pronounced. The construction of the 
service upon the hypothetical principle may be 
unwise, but that it was constructed on that princi- 



no Appendix — Notes 

pie is most certain." — Baptismal Regeneration, by 
E. Mellor, D.D., Note, p. 64. 

" Of those infants, therefore, who have been bap- 
tized, we do not hope, but we know, that as they 
are partakers of the covenant of grace, so they are 
partakers of the assurance of pardon, and, more- 
over, have a right to those graces of the Holy 
Spirit, which if cultivated as they grow up, will 
surely new-create in them a sanctified nature, 
mortifying and destroying their old and corrupt 
nature, and making them sons of God indeed. 
Hence as they are by baptism entitled to regen- 
erating grace, we do not scruple to use the lan- 
guage of Scripture and antiquity, and to call them 
regenerate in baptism." — Browne on the Thirty - 
nine Articles, p. 676. 

" Regeneration is a change of our spiritual con- 
ditio?!, a translation into a state in which our sal- 
vation is rendered possible : renovation is that 
change of heart and life by which salvation is 
finally attained." — Bishop J. H. Hibart, Works, 
vol. ii, p. 472. 

"Since then baptismal regeneration confers 
only a conditional title to the blessings of the 
Christian covenant, and pledges and conveys 
only that grace which is necessary to the fulfill- 
ment of these conditions, it is a misapprehension 



Appendix — Notes in 

or a misstatement of this doctrine which represents 
it as denying or superseding the necessity of that 
spiritual change which it sets forth and enforces. 
— Idem, p. 62. 

"This Babel-like confusion [in interpretation] 
has resulted from the attempt to make the Office 
speak what its framers did not intend, and from 
overlooking the principle on which it is constructed, 

the principle of a legal fiction The infant is 

represented as an intelligent voluntary party to the 
covenant of salvation — and the conditions of the 
covenant and the promises and blessings are fully 
set forth. It is the infant who renounces sin, pro- 
fesses faith, desires baptism, and promises obedi- 
ence. It is not the promise and profession of the 
sponsors." — Bishop Alfred Lee, Review of the 
Bishop of New York's Pastoral Letter, p. 24. 

The bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in this country, in the council of the General Con- 
vention of 1 87 1, made the following declaration : 
" Being asked to declare our conviction as to the 
meaning of the word ' regenerate ' in the Offices 
for the ministration of baptism to infants, we do 
declare that in our opinion, the word ' regenerate ' 
is not there so used as to determine that a moral 
change in the subject of baptism is wrought in that 
sacrament." 



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